While in some places in the region (electric) bicycles disappear in droves, in other places a charge is occasionally found again. This was also the case last night, when the police accidentally found four e-bikes. It is unknown where the bicycles come from, but the police of neighboring municipalities Aalsmeer and Uithoorn reported today that things are getting out of hand there.
Officers who patrolled the Haarlemmermeer village last night decided to check the driver of a vehicle they saw as suspicious. It soon turned out that their hunch was correct, because the motorist fled when they saw the police.
After a short chase through the village, the two occupants decided to flee on foot. The officers then cordoned off the area and drummed up a police dog. Still, that didn’t make much sense, especially since the dog couldn’t get everywhere because of the many obstacles in the vicinity.
off the roof
The police helicopter offered solace. From the air, officers saw two men hiding on the roof of a nearby building. After the suspects had come off the roof on command of the officers, they were handcuffed. Not only for their escape attempt, but also because four stolen e-bikes were found in the abandoned bus.
The police is investigating the case. It is already clear that the e-bikes were stolen so recently ‘that the victims of this theft probably haven’t even lost their bikes yet’. Anyone who discovers that an e-bike has been stolen is advised to contact the police on 0900-8844. “Perhaps the colleagues of the @politie_oc_noord_holland can help immediately.”
Coincidence
The police do it in the Instagram post don’t be secretive about it: this is without a doubt a fluke. This is in line with the statements of the Hoofddorp community officer Arjen Schut. In a report on the lack of guarded bicycle sheds in Haarlemmermeer and Amstelland he recently said in front of the NH Nieuws camera that the police are quite powerless against bicycle thieves.
Article continues below the video.
Aalsmeer
Remarkably enough, the police of Aalsmeer and Uithoorn have reported a ‘significant increase’ in the number of bicycle thefts in that area on Facebook. Especially in Aalsmeer it is often hit, but also in Aalsmeer more bicycles are stolen.
The Facebook post has a photo of a mountain bike, but the message does not show which types of bicycles are often stolen. The police do report that the reports show that many of the stolen bicycles were locked, often with a ring lock, and in some cases with a ring and chain lock.
Careful advice
According to the police, bicycles with such locks are easily stolen because there are tokens in circulation. Such a token fits every lock, although the police do have some careful advice for those who want to make it more difficult for thieves.
“It may be useful to put a chain lock on your bicycle with a different key than the one needed for the ring lock and to attach the bicycle to a fixed object. That makes it a lot less easy to remove the bicycle with a runner .”
NH Nieuws has asked the Amsterdam-Amstelland police how many stolen bicycles are involved in Aalsmeer and Uithoorn. The exact percentage increase in both municipalities was also asked. Those figures were not available today, and will therefore be added to this article later.